Relatives of Hung Shih-cheng, a crew member on Taiwanese fishing boat Guang Ta Hsin 28, grieve over his body at Liuqiu harbour in Taiwan's southern Pingtung county yesterday. He was shot dead by the Philippine coastguard on Thursday. Photo: AFP

A fishing trawler that was fired on by the Philippines' coastguard limped back to Taiwan yesterday, riddled with more than 50 bullet holes and carrying the body of a 65-year-old crew member.

However, Manila refused to apologise to Taipei, saying the incident happened when the coast-guard vessel acted in self-defence to avoid being rammed while tackling "illegal fishing".

Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou said yesterday the island would not rule out possible sanctions against Manila.

"We will seek justice for our fisherman. We will not rule out the possibility of taking any kind of sanctions [against the Philippines]," Ma said while inspecting a coastguard drill in central Taiwan. "The Philippines shot an unarmed fishing boat.

Some Taiwanese lawmakers urged the government to freeze the hiring of Philippine workers in protest at the shooting.

Manila admitted on Friday that its coastguard had fired on a Taiwanese trawler the previous day, but said the action took place inside its own territorial waters and that it had no idea it had killed 65-year-old Hung Shih-cheng, one of four crew members aboard.

Taiwanese investigators counted 52 bullet holes on the boat, while it was confirmed that Hung had died after being shot in the neck. The trawler came under fire from heavy machine guns, Taipei's official Central News Agency reported.

Abigail Valte, a spokeswoman for Philippine President Benigno Aquino, and coastguard chief Rear Admiral Rodolfo Isorena said in Manila that their patrol boat "was forced to fire the shots because the [Taiwanese] fishing vessel attempted to ram them".

However, this was denied by the victim's son and trawler captain, Hung Yu-chih, who said the Philippine vessel opened fire without warning.

Additional reporting by Associated Press

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Fired-on trawler back in Taiwan

Well said..........the Filipinos are a bunch of shameless and cold-blooded group of dogss......there is no way anyone can justify firing 50 times at an unarmed civilian boat.........time for Taiwanese to take some serious action on them.........

Yeah what is the last Taiwanese president doing right now? Oh yes, in jail for corruption. Nobody's hands are clean on corruption in Asia though if Taiwanese and Chinese poachers were still able to bribe Philippine Coastguard ships like they did in the past this wouldn't have happened I guess.
Anyway don't worry about the bullets, they really don't cost much and there are plenty more available. Also before you fire your domestic helper, get her to teach you how to clean your own house.

Best thing. 2 years ago got rid of my foreign domestic helper and moved to a local one. I never knew there were so many local ones and only $60 per hour.
Able to get one 4 hours every day (mon to fri) and have cooking, cleaning, washing, ironing etc... at roughly the price of foreign helper. Best part is as soon as I come in she goes home. No agents, flights, offering food and I have a spare bedroom now. It is awesome and highly recommend it. It makes perfect sense especially as minimal wage is $30 so they love you when you pay $60.

Taiwan coastguard doesn't do things, so I can't tell you what they will do. I can only tell you if a policeman shoot some civilian to death in Taiwan, he is in deep trouble, no matter what reason. If you are still interest into this. You can google "Senkaku Islands Dispute". Taiwan fishermen and Japan coastguard had many conflicts before, but never once ended with tragedy costing human life.

chaz_hen May 12th 201312:50pm

HK government can teach a few things to Taiwan...firstly, put the Philippines on the black "no travel" list forever because of this incident...Then start hiring cheaper Indos and Banglos for your low cost domestic labor...

donniemcm May 12th 201311:36am

Story summary :
- A country is perpetually looking to conquer new water territories.
- A country is perpetually not feeling sorry for its lame armed force.

martin.su.127 May 12th 20139:33am

The unarmed Taiwanese fisherman (170 miles south of Taiwan) was killed by Philippine government thugs within Taiwan's 200-mile EEZ (ie. exclusive economic zone).

ninjahenyo May 12th 20138:02am

If you try to ram your ship on another ship you are already endagering the lives of the other people from the other ship regardless if you are civilian or not. If you do that on people with authorities, thats already assault on authorities thus they have the right to disable you, the PCG try to shoot the engine but unfortunately somewhat got hit. If you look at the PCG ship, you can find it here: ****www.istorya.net/forums/politics-and-current-events/610706-philippine-coast-guard-shoot-down-taiwanese-illegal-poachers-3.html
the PCG ship is just slightly bigger than the other ship thus vulnerable to ramming.And to the question of jurisdiction, its true this incident happen 170nm from taiwan, but that area is also just 45nm east of balintang island, Luzon straight. The area is between two philippine islands which part of batanes province. How can this area be disputed if it happen between two philippine island. Just look at google earth or any credible map and you will see that this place is dotted with islands which is part of batanes province. Even taiwan knows Batanes islands are part of philippines. ****maps.google.com/maps?q=Balintang+Island,+Calayan,+Cagayan+Valley,+Philippines&hl=en&ll=19.957537,122.14694&spn=0.026058,0.038795&sll=27.698638,-83.804601&sspn=12.548987,19.863281&oq=Balintang+island&t=p&hnear=Balintang+Island&z=15
If those fisherman are not doing anything illegal, why did they evade inspection?
Lesson: Dont steal your neigbors resources